Newsoms fulfill mom's last wish with charity

PHILANTHROPY Cancer's toll on family inspires promise to remember

Hilary and Geoff Callan will be honored on Nov. 4 at the 35th anniversary of the Northern Calif. Cancer Center gala. They founded their PlumpJack Golf Tourney about 10 years ago in honor of Hilary's mom, Tessa Newsom, who died of breast cancer. Hilary, Geoff, and Hilary's brother, Mayor Gavin Newsom talk about how breast cancer has changed their lives. less

Hilary and Geoff Callan will be honored on Nov. 4 at the 35th anniversary of the Northern Calif. Cancer Center gala. They founded their PlumpJack Golf Tourney about 10 years ago in honor of Hilary's mom, Tessa ... more

Photo: Russell Yip, The Chronicle

Photo: Russell Yip, The Chronicle

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Hilary and Geoff Callan will be honored on Nov. 4 at the 35th anniversary of the Northern Calif. Cancer Center gala. They founded their PlumpJack Golf Tourney about 10 years ago in honor of Hilary's mom, Tessa Newsom, who died of breast cancer. Hilary, Geoff, and Hilary's brother, Mayor Gavin Newsom talk about how breast cancer has changed their lives. less

Hilary and Geoff Callan will be honored on Nov. 4 at the 35th anniversary of the Northern Calif. Cancer Center gala. They founded their PlumpJack Golf Tourney about 10 years ago in honor of Hilary's mom, Tessa ... more

Photo: Russell Yip, The Chronicle

Newsoms fulfill mom's last wish with charity

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As Tessa Menzies Newsom lay dying in May 2002 from breast cancer, she made a solemn request of her children, Mayor Gavin Newsom and Hilary Newsom Callan.

Their mother's final wish, said Hilary Callan in an exclusive interview recently with her brother and her husband, Geoff Callan, in the mayor's office at City Hall, has become a defining recitation in their lives: "I don't want you to forget me."

One of the leading research and prevention centers in the country, the NCCC was co-founded in 1974 by former Assemblyman and lawyer B.J. Feigenbaum, the father of NCCC trustee Doris Fisher, who recently lost her husband, Gap founder and philanthropist Don Fisher, to cancer.

After Tessa Newsom's diagnosis in 1999, and unaware of Barbara Callan's experience with cancer, Newsom Callan was hesitant to "dump" her news on Geoff, whom she'd just started dating.

But his support was immediate, especially as he wanted to honor his mother's battle against cancer. The actor and filmmaker is also a scratch golfer and understood the ways, and success, of charity tournaments. Geoff even created the golf-centric LINK moniker to describe the NCCC programs for which they raise money: Learning, Information, Networking and Knowledge.

The tournament is a true labor of love for the couple. They announced their engagement at the first tourney, and the impending arrival of their two daughters, Talitha and Siena, at subsequent ones.

"Sadly, because my father has lost so many people in his family to cancer, I was already an activist," says Newsom Callan of retired State Appellate Justice William Newsom, who has lost three siblings to the disease. "But not nearly to the same extent I am now. It's been a part of my life since losing my aunt, Sharon Mohun, to cancer."

Because of Doris Fisher's work, she knew the NCCC was "a trusted organization with access to some of the best doctors and research." Newsom Callan, who had previously volunteered with the American Cancer Society, is now an NCCC trustee, and in the past 10 days raised funds with her husband for three other cancer charities.

Environmental factors

As mayor, Newsom believes that the most important program he's enacted, via Healthy San Francisco, is one that connects San Franciscans with doctors who can assist in cancer screening and early detection.

However, access is but one piece in the frustrating puzzle that is cancer. Mounting pages of numerous studies cite environmental concerns - a factor the children of Tessa Newsom believe may have contributed to her diagnosis.

"Our mother passed away in one of the most disproportionate counties in terms of breast cancer diagnoses: Marin County," Newsom says. "Her identical, mirror twin (Annie Scherer) lives in San Francisco and is healthy."

Newsom Callan agrees with her brother. But she is perhaps a step ahead in switching out standard home products for their organic counterparts.

"Wait, I still use Crest," interjects Newsom, perplexed. "What's wrong with Crest? Is it bad?"

The athletic mayor incorporated some lifestyle changes after his mother's death. But after the loss of a parent, it's often easier to exercise the body than to exorcise the grief.

Different paths

"I did what most people do: repress the entire experience. I just went on to work harder. In 2002, I began my campaign for mayor against my mother's advice," admits Newsom, who counted upon Tessa as his daily sounding board. "She desperately tried to push me away from politics.

"The cause? She supported, absolutely. But not the life that goes with it. She wanted me to buy the Marina Times and live a happy lifestyle."

Newsom is proud that his sister chose a more vocal path to channel her feelings.

She recently realized that 25 percent of her time is spent on philanthropy.

"I asked myself if that was in line with being the president of the PlumpJack Group," Newsom Callan says of the restaurant-hotel business co-founded by her brother. "And I thought, 'Yes, it is.' "

Newsom jokingly contradicts his sister: "No. It's not."

"Every single day and every single night, cancer is relevant in my life. I get phone calls constantly, 'Hil, my friend was just diagnosed,' " says Newsom Callan. "Sometimes the exhaustion we feel is overwhelming. But the work we're doing today is going to prevent our children from having to suffer the way that our parents did."

Much of that work emphasizes the message of early detection: self-exams, eating right, exercise and being aware of changes in your body.

"When my mom was diagnosed in 1986, my dad (Robert Callan) just streamrolled through everybody to get her the very best care and learn more about the disease," remembers Geoff Callan. "Not to worry about how she got it; rather, how to get rid of it."

When Tessa Newsom's Stage 4 cancer was diagnosed in 1999, at age 50, her doctors estimated that the tumor had been growing for seven years.

"One of the most heartbreaking experiences for me was our mom saying, 'I should have caught this earlier.' The mammogram didn't," says Newsom Callan. "But she didn't have a yearly mammogram because she had no previous history."